Handicaps in a Japanese Go Club

A Japanese friend kindly gave me the details of the handicapping
system used in the Okubo Go Club. The system will be of interest to
British players not only far the way in which they adjust the handicaps
of their players, but also for the way in which professional players are
matched with amateurs.

The strength of professional players is normally judged on the basis
of the results of games in competition, on which they spend 10 or 12
hours each. Of course many amateurs cannot give so much time to a single
game, and so their strength is on a somewhat different basis.

This means that, although the true strength of top professionals
might be about 200 on the index number list on the right, when they play
with amateurs their strengths are taken at about 190. Mr. Okubo, 9-dan,
who comes to every meeting of the club, is assessed at 180 for the
purpose of teaching games.

Each member of the club has a strength assessment in terms of the
index numbers, which might either be an exact equivalent of a kyu or dan
grade or a halfway position, such as 115 -between 1 and 2 dan.

Index Number

Equivalent Strength

200 ]

190 ]

] Professional players

180 ] }

170 }

} Top amateurs

160 }

150

Amateur 5-dan

140

4-dan

130

3-dan

120

2-dan

110

1-dan

100

1-kyu

90

2-kyu

80

3-kyu

70

4-kyu

60

5-kyu

50

6-kyu

40

7-kyu

30

8-kyu

20

9-kyu

10

10-kyu

0 }

11-kyu

-10 }

12-kyu

etc }

"beginners"

To calculate the handicap for a particular game, the two index
numbers are subtracted, and one stone given for every ten points
difference. When an exact division is not possible, Black is given 5
points komi. A special ruling for a difference of only 5 in the index
numbers gives White 2.5 points komi, not the 5 komi he gets when the
strengths are equal.

It is interesting to compare this system with the old
"Europeans system used in Britain until two years ago. The European
system gives half a stone more than the Okubo system for every handicap
game and thus favours the Black player. A further advantage to Black is
in the method of calculating intermediate handicaps, by giving komi.

Competitions and Handicap Adjustment

The Okubo Club play a round of matches lasting about a month,
after which the scores of all those members who have played in more than
12 matches are compared. The winner is the one with the highest
percentage of wins.

Handicap adjustment is also based on the percentage of wins. Those
with percentages over 65 are advanced by 5 points in index number, and
those who do worse than 35% are demoted 5 points. For players above
strength 150 (5-dan), two consecutive months of over 65% or below 35%
are required before a change is made.

This article is from the
British Go Journal
Issue 13[1]
which is one of a series[2] of back issues now available on the web.

Last updated Thu Jan 03 2013. If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.